When appliances attack

for odors

Had a freezer that held a bad stank. Pulled apart the liner (hidden screws under the door ledge) and had a time cleaning the styrofoam of mildew and the heater element area of some built-up crud. Put it all back together and was fine. YMMV – some of these newer fridges are sealed foamed-in walls but the defrost cavity is probably the culprit.

Addendum; the PVC used for the liners has microporosity and will soak-up odours. As LB pointed out, not much can be done but lamplighter’s ‘Gonzo Odor Eliminating Rocks’ may be a solution.

Sounds like you get along fine without your microwave, but I fixed the neighbor’s over-the-range model with similar symptoms by replacing a small diode behind the control panel. Only cost a few bucks and was easy to get to by removing a few screws. We disassembled to investigate, and got lucky that the diode was right up front and obviously burnt. There was even a schematic tucked behind the top trim panel. :partying_face:

BTW, I love my old-timey top-loader with a mechanical timer. I know several friends who have replaced fancy front-load units after just a few years because the ’puter bits go wonky and the price of parts means they aren’t worth fixing.

Yeah, what brand is the dead Nuke?

Might have a solution.

It’s certainly old enough to have a schematic inside, so once I clean off all the shiite on top, I might just take it down and open it up to look.

Would be a good excuse to clean off the entire f’n counter and give it all a good scrubdown, too.

Yeh, and the internal barrels of side-loaders being supported only by the motor shaft and its associated bearings, with nothing else to take up all that weight, leading to bearings wearing out. Plus “waterproof” membrane switches and connectors being exposed to splashing water, other genius design-decisions like that, make those machines sooooooooo reliable.

It’s a Sharp “Carousel”.

Guess it didn’t “renew” after reaching 30yo.

My front loads are over 10 years old, run every day . No problems so far .

The Sharp Carousel was really popular among folks I’d known back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Practically every house of friends in my neighborhood had ’em. Sharp did a decent job with them, until at some point when they cheapened it… and it went downhill. The Carousel III?

Best microwave I’ve ever used was a Kenmore. It was so intelligently thought out. Nice features. Nothing too complicated. And it was reliable. It was part of a stove unit at my last apartment, so wasn’t mine to take. Present one is a Whirlpool. It’s actually pretty good, except for the occasional unexpected drip of some oily substance. I think it’s some kind of grease buildup inside. I cleaned the whole vent system, even found some semi-liquid grease that had built up in it. But the internal drip problem returned and the vents were still clean. Anyway, minor problem because it’s not a frequent occurrence.

I can’t imagine the cap is leaking its electrolyte?
Do you do bacon much?

I think this unit is far too new for an old style can capacitor. Bacon is done once in a while, but not enough to account for it, esp. since a paper towel covers it.

Ah

The Sharp Carousel we had one that lasted for like 25 million years . But very early on the display went out and no amount of banging the door would get it to light up again . early on you could smack it across your thigh like a flickering rayovac 2 C cell flashlight but it became increasingly rare for the display to pop back to life ....So we just used the minute ...add a minute button . .. Beep beep beep ..three minutes beep beep beep beep .. 4 minutes .Pretty complicated stuff . other than that .Rock solid and built like a tank .

On it's death bed I gave it a true carousel send off . I broke out the tools and tore it entirely down to schematic parts . I remember tearing down the door and being very impressed with the whole country of Japan. God bless them one and all for making such a smart product . Saved the glass platter just in case of a nuclear disaster ..maybe barter it for food after the upcoming apocalypse .

Seriously. That’s why I’m leaning to (eventually) trying a repair (hopefully something blatant like a fried diode) vs gutting it.

Tried chanting/cheering “Renew! Renew! Renew!”, but nothing happened.

I was hoping it was an old Kenmore as they had a tilt out circuit board with a cable to hold it at the perfect angle for repair, like your car hood but upside down.
Schematic on the side of chassis.
Anyway had a repair tech here one time to work on new electric oven with computer and he showed me how easy the Kenmore was to repair.
He asked what’s wrong with it? Told him no heat but does everything else. “I can fix that right now!”
Me: “How do you know that”
Him: It’s going to be bad solder joint on one leg of big transformer.
Me: “Alrighty then let’s go”

Sure enough just like he said solder got hot over time and worked it’s way off and dry for board, 3 min later she was back in action and worked all the way till she got replaced during remodel.

Best heat from microwave that I have seen are the Panasonics, Mom has had 2 over the years and those suckers cook way quicker and hotter than all the others I have used or seen.

As always,
YMMV

There’s an electrolytic capacitor regardless of age or model. If it is mounted head down and (extremely rare) could leak.

But taking the housing off, most probably something once dripped into the vent louvres and when the innards get warm, it oozes out.

Mine quit; replaced fuse; ran fine.
Regular household breakers can go “soft” and cause problems; don’t know if microwave fuses could do the same.

Just a note: be careful, the retained charge can knock you on your ass.

Huh. What do you know. Well, being into vintage audio, I know old gear has loads of capacitors. Then with miniaturization, you end up losing them to chips. Is it the nature of the microwave engine power requirements that mandates a moderately sized electrolytic capacitor?

@xevious:

That statement comes off as condescending.
If you were to open your microwave oven, the innards would have these principal components:

There aren’t two ways about a voltage doubler at 2kV* – so yes, it is the nature of microwaves to have a bulky transformer and an electrolytic capacitor. (~1 µF - oil type)

  • commercially viable for 1500W

I don’t think he ment to be condescending. I read it as more of a aha type response .

I think he was alluding to my previous builds regarding vintage components and meters.

Exactly. I was not being condescending at all. Language translation loss?